His notion was that the Bureau hadn't a great deal to go upon if they
meant to do anything further about dispossessing us. In fact, he quite
seemed to think that as the legislature had a good many other worries just
now, it would suit them to let us slide. He couldn't recommend anything
better than getting our friends in the lobbies to keep the screw on them
until the election."

Torrance looked thoughtful. "That means holding out for another six
months, any way. Did you hear anything at the settlement?"

"Yes. Fleming wouldn't sell the homestead-boys anything after they broke
in his store. Steele's our man, and it was Carter they got their
provisions from. Now, Carter had given Jackson a bond for two thousand
dollars when he first came in, and as he hadn't made his payments lately,
and we have our thumb on Jackson, the Sheriff has closed down on his
store. He'll be glad to light out with the clothes he stands in when we're
through with him."

Torrance nodded grim approval. "Larry wouldn't sit tight."

"No," said Clavering. "He wired right through to Chicago for most of a
carload of flour and eatables, but that car got billed wrong somehow, and
now they're looking for her up and down the side-tracks of the Pacific
slope. Larry's men will be getting savage. It is not nice to be hungry
when there's forty degrees of frost."

Torrance laughed softly. "You have fixed the thing just as I would."

Then his daughter stood up with a little flush in her face. "You could not
have meant that, father?" she said.

"Well," said Torrance, drily, "I quite think I did, but there's a good
deal you can't get the hang of, Hetty--and it's getting very late."

He looked at his daughter steadily, and Flora Schuyler looked at all of
them, and remembered the picture--Torrance sitting lean and sardonic with
the lamplight on his face, Clavering watching the girl with a curious
little smile, and Hetty standing very slim and straight, with something in
the poise of her shapely head that had its meaning to Miss Schuyler. Then
with a "Good-night" to Torrance, and a half-ironical bend of the head to
Clavering, she turned to her companion, and they went out together before
he could open the door for them.

Five minutes later Hetty tapped at Miss Schuyler's door. The pink tinge
still showed in her cheeks, and her eyes had a suspicious brightness in
them.

"Flo," she said, "you'll go back to New York right off. I'm sorry I
brought you here. T